Jazzed Up Notebook

Today is the start of a new challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  Sara is our hostess and has titled it Read Any Good Books Lately?  Here is what she has to say about it:

Reading a good book on the beach or on the porch is a simple summer pleasure. For this challenge, please create a vintage or shabby chic project that depicts a favorite book or use book pages on your project, alter a book or even make a journal or journal page! Just be sure it's in the vintage or shabby chic style that we are looking for!

I was at the dollar store and saw this notebook with a textured vinyl cover and an elastic closure.  It was actually $3.00 - so much for being the dollar store.  I thought it might be fun to alter the cover so despite the price, I picked it up and brought it home.

I changed my mind and decided not to try to pull it apart since the cover was quite nice but whatever I did would have to tie in the chocolate brown colour so I settled on adding an assemblage panel that would have some brown on it.

I took a piece of chipboard from Linda's shop and cut it to size and then gave it a coat of clear Gesso before gluing on all sorts of bits and pieces.  There are pieces from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, my husband's workshop and my stash - lace, flowers, buttons, charms, pop caps, screws washers, etc.

To unify the colour I gave everything a coat of white Gesso.

Then I added the colour starting with a coat of Khaki Acrylic Paint (Craftsmart) followed by a dry brushed coat of Poodleskirt Pink Acrylic Paint (DecoArt).  I sponged on some Espresso (Craftsmart and some Rich Espresso Metallic (DecoArt).  Then I sprayed on some Worn Lipstick and Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stain.

To finish the cover off, I distressed the edges and added some tiny chocolate brown seed beads in random clusters before I glued it to the notebook cover.  Once it was dry I discovered that my distressing had left enough lift on the edges for the elastic closure to slide underneath - bonus because it doesn't hide any of my bits and pieces like I expected.

I hope you will join us for this challenge.  The Design Team will choose their top pick who will have a Guest Designer opportunity with us and also their next top three who will receive a badge to display on their blog.  A random winner will also be chosen to receive a $25 shopping spree in The Funkie Junkie Boutique.